Palestinian Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh urged the international community to take serious steps to place the Palestinian people under international protection in their own land.
Al-Sheikh's statement on Thursday came after the International Committee of the Red Cross assessed the conditions faced by civilians in the occupied West Bank. Al-Sheikh said he welcomed the Red Cross's call for urgent protection for Palestinians.
The Palestinian vice president argued that Palestinians were facing repeated and severe acts of violence alongside policies and practices of ethnic cleansing.
Red Cross highlights impact on civilians
The International Committee of the Red Cross drew attention to the impact of increased violence, movement restrictions and settlement expansion on civilians in the West Bank.
According to the committee, these practices are causing serious harm, making it difficult for patients to access health care and for students to reach their schools. Some residents are also being separated from their homes and livelihoods.
Julian Lerison, the committee's head of mission in Israel and the occupied territories, said the repeated and severe acts of violence must end.
Lerison said that, as the occupying power, Israel was responsible for protecting the population in the West Bank from settler violence, complying with international humanitarian law, safeguarding public and private property, and ensuring access to essential services.
Legal assessment of settlements
The Red Cross committee reiterated its legal position that Israel's establishment and expansion of settlements in the West Bank conflict with the obligations set out in Article 49, Paragraph 6, of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.
The provision prohibits an occupying power from transferring part of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.
Settler attacks in the West Bank
According to data from the Palestinian Commission Against the Wall and Settlements, settlers carried out 628 attacks in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in August.
In June, 14 United Nations rapporteurs warned that the sharp increase in settler violence in the occupied Palestinian territories, with the support and acquiescence of the Israeli state, posed an existential danger.
Attacks by the Israeli army and settlers in the West Bank increased after the attacks began in the Gaza Strip in October 2023. During this period, 1,206 Palestinians were killed, about 13,350 were injured and more than 24,600 were detained.
